Various web pages incorporate search engines to help users find information associated with the web page. These search engines typically receive a search query from a user that contains text-based terms. The search engine performs a text-based search of contents on the web page and provides a breadth of information in the form of search results related to the search query. However, the search results may not be sufficiently relevant to the users.
In one example, the user provides a search query for the item “cookies without nuts” because the user would like to receive a list of cookies that do not contain ingredients with nuts. The user may have an allergic reaction to nuts. In a typical search, the system may use to search query to retrieve three sets of results, including one set of search results for the term “cookies,” one set of search results for the term “without,” and one set of search results for the term “nuts.” Some search engines will discard the search results associated with the term “without” which leaves two sets of search results for “cookies” and “nuts.” The system will provide a combined set of search results to the user, which contains products for cookies and products with nuts. The user may find several items from the list that contain nuts, become frustrated, and stop visiting the web page. In some instances, the user may not realize the products have nuts, order the product, and subsequently have a violent allergic reaction to the product when the user proceeds to consume the product.
Another unsatisfactory outcome of standard search queries is the use of certain ambiguous search terms. Users provide search queries to the search engines using terms that the user feels will give the most appropriate results for what the user is searching for. However, certain terms that users provide in the search query may have different meanings depending on who is doing the search and what the user's expectations are for search results.